New Threats? Risk and Securitization Theory on Climate Change and Water

Buzan, Wæver, and de Wilde (1998) argue that states and societies ‘securitize’ issues to highlight their urgency. This has been the case with the environment and particularly water.2 In this chapter a number of consequences of this phenomenon will be addressed. For example, what are the implications of this securitization on policy formulation both for the security and for the environment sector? Is the securitization process leading to policy priorities that are relevant from a security perspective or is the debate getting blurred? The threat posed to and by the environment differs from traditional threats to state security. Traditional threats deal with military and strategic issues while environmental challenges are seen as incrementally growing threats. The Climate Change issue which has really taken off during the last years, is of course also seen (or indeed branded) as en environmental security issue. The importance of climate change is further elevated as it is seen as affecting, in a destabilizing manner, also food security, water availability, and health issues. It is conceived as a future cause for environmental migrants. Thus, the main importance of climate change as a security issue is that it affects and furthers other environmental scarcities (IPCC 2007a). It is also evident that the issue has gained interest among the defence establishments (US National Security Council Memorandum, 27 March, 1998).